Rome can be seen in a day and a half

The Trevi Fountain, where tourists flock to toss a coin in the water, fulfilling a legend that doing so ensures they will return to the city one day. Below, the Colosseum.Matt Viser/Globe Staff (above); Julian Finney/Getty Images (below)

There is a 12th-century French proverb meant to signal that greatness takes time. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” the saying goes.

The Eternal City isn’t really meant to be seen in a day, either. But I was going to try.

I had been in Rome for on assignment with Secretary of State John Kerry, seeing the city mostly from a motorcade, glancing at sites from a van window in between stops for press conferences and photo ops. But when Kerry departed for the Middle East, I remained in Rome, tacking on about a day and a half of personal time.